


Smoke and Mirrors

by thePetetoherPatrick



Series: Wolves and Magick [4]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: I'll probably add more tags as I go, Michael's POV, Multi, Past Character Death, There will be a new OC soon, but you'd know about that if you read Fire and Water, just depends on how the story goes, magick and stuff, past death of a major character mentioned, she's based on a friend, some elements of depression, supernatural beings au, tagged explicit for violence (potentially graphic) and possible smut, too many supernaturals to tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-11 20:17:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7906156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thePetetoherPatrick/pseuds/thePetetoherPatrick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With Ray gone the office isn't quite the same. Michael knows Rose isn't dealing well but he fears what worse could happen to her if what they suspect is true...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. No

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go again...

I look at Rose from where I sit at my desk. She’s been really edgy since the day she came back to the office to tell me Ray’s grave had been dug up and torn apart. It’s been a month, the police still have nothing and none of us have been able to make heads or tails of it. Meg’s latest project is trying to find a tracking spell to use but hasn’t found one that actually works. I toy with the leather bracelet on my wrist. I’d offered it to Rose but she said his mom wanted me to have it. The wooden beads don’t have much colour left to them, he must have had it for a long time. He always wore it but I never asked him what it was. I look over at Lil J at his desk. He’s been a good fit in Ray’s old spot but we still miss Ray. Jeremy tries not to take it personally, he knows what happened. 

Gavin sits beside me in his chair, leaning on my shoulder and playing with something on his computer half-heartedly. I kiss the top of his head lightly and he smiles up at me. It’s been the same for a while, quiet and depressing if I’m honest. I check my twitter, the fans seem to have moved on, not forgetting Ray but with there fanfics and fanart they’ve at least managed to forget he’s gone. I like a couple of the particularly good art pieces I see and leave the app. 

Miles comes stumbling into the room at exactly that moment looking pale and shaken. He collapses and the room springs into action. Ryan gets him off the floor and up onto the couch. Jeremy runs for Meg and Barb. Even Rose becomes attentive to see what’s wrong. 

“I….h-he….I-I-I….t-t-the…..” Miles stutters incoherently. 

“Woah man, you need to calm down, take it easy.” Jack says, pulling his chair away from his desk to sit in front of the couch. “Deep breathes buddy, just slow down.” 

Miles tries to do as Jack tells him but his mind seems to be against him and he starts panicking again. Gavin moves over to him and put his hand on his shoulder. He starts muttering and I realize he’s trying the spell I found for him. It’s tied to water energy so I thought it’d be good for him. It’s a spell to make one’s mind and energy calm down to equate to the state of a still pond. I don’t remember what it was called but that’s what it does. Miles visibly relaxes and his breathing evens out. 

Jack nods in approval to Gavin, who smiles proudly, glad he could do something helpful. “Alright Miles, you feel better now?” Jack asks and Miles nods. “Ok, now tell us what happened.”

“I was outside, Kerry had told me Burnie wanted us to pick a spot for a video or something, I don’t really know….” he hesitates, looking up at Gavin, and leans into him. “I was looking around, trying to find a good spot to start setting up….I looked up over near the trees...I thought I saw…” his breathing starts to become ragged again but Gavin starts muttering the spell. “I thought I saw Ray standing by the trees. When I looked back he was still there and then he turned around and ran off. I’m crazy right? Ray is dead, there’s no way it was him? Like there’s no way someone actually brought him back?” 

Jack looks to me and Rose. “I’m still looking into it, it’s possible but I doubt anyone would be dumb enough to try it, it may look like him but if they did, it wouldn’t really be him.” Rose’s ears go flat against her head, twitching in irritation. She’s been hitting dead end after dead end with the search for an answer. 

“We should check it out none-the-less, even if it’s someone pretending to be him. Miles can you point out where you saw him if we go back outside?” I ask him and he nods. “Alright, Geoff, you and me will check it out.” Geoff nods and walks out of the office. Jack, Miles, Rose, Ryan, Gavin, and I all follow. Jeremy, Meg, and Barb catch up to us on our way out. 

“It was over there. I was here and I looked out over there.” Miles says as we find where he’d been. Geoff and I shift without any further discussion. We wander around in the trees for a while, not finding anything. 

It’s not until I’m about ready to give up that I catch a whiff of a scent, one that’s entirely too familiar. I let out a sharp, almost bark like, sound to catch Geoff’s attention. We follow the scent though the trees and undergrowth. Before long we are standing at the edge of a clearing with a pond at the far end. Beside the pond, a figure is crouched. I stop in my tracks, causing Geoff to bump into me. No.


	2. Ray

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We step back into the clearing and turn to him, or what looks like him anyway. “Ray?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, I have not abandoned this, I simply got distracted by other things and didn't know what to write for this or how to make time for it. I'm back now though so let's see how this story ends shall we?

Geoff and I stand there, unsure of how to proceed. The figure stands up and turns around to face us. I feel like someone has twisted a knife in my gut as I see his face. He’s exactly as I remember him being but somehow different still. I study him for a minute. He seems...I don’t know there is just something off about him. He stands there, not moving or saying anything, waiting for us to make the first move but we are both in our Wolf forms. I hear footsteps behind us and look up to see Ryan carrying material in his hands. 

 

“God you guys move fast.” he sets down two pairs of shorts. Geoff and I each take one and move out of sight to shift and put them on. 

 

We step back into the clearing and turn to him, or what looks like him anyway. “Ray?” I say quietly, voice barely finding the strength to force out the word. He steps closer and I feel so weird about this. “You were dead, we watched you die.” 

 

“Yeah, I know, I thought it was over.” he looks at himself and at me. “I never thought I’d wake up but I did and I…” he looks at the sky, he’s standing in the shade at the very edge of where the sunlight reaches. 

 

“What happened to you?” Geoff asks, looking like he’s close to tears. Ray was as much like a son to him as Gavin and I. Geoff’s heart broke a bit more that day. 

 

“I don’t really know, I only know some of it. I’m not me anymore though, I’m not the Ray you remember.” He looks at his feet. 

 

“Let us be the judge of that.” I say.

 

“I’m not a Werewolf anymore, I’m not even human.” Ray looks at me, the pain so clear in his eyes it makes my heart hurt. 

 

“Then what are you?” I ask but Ray just shrugs. 

 

“I don’t really know, it’s weird and hard to explain.” Ray sighs. “And I haven’t quite figured everything out but I’m not in control of myself all of the time.” 

 

“Maybe Lindsay will know, she can easily read anyone.” Ryan says, looking at Ray in uncertainty and concern.  

 

“Ok...just...don’t tell Rose yet...not until we get this figured out.” Ray pleads with us and I nod. 

 

“That’d be easier on her too.” Geoff looks at me and then at Ryan. “For now you can……” Geoff frowns. “Well we can’t take you to the office, and you can’t come home with me, Grif would lose her shit.” 

 

“Rose spends too much time at my place with Gav and I for him to stay with me.” I shake my head and look at the ground. 

 

“He can stay with me and Meg for now.” Ryan offers and Ray nods silently. “I can take you there now and explain it to Meg quietly when I get back to the office so she doesn’t freak out when she sees you.” 

 

“Thanks, Rye.” Ray nods and almost looks like he might tear up and start crying. 

 

“No, problem. Now let’s get going.” Ryan gestures for Ray to follow him. The rest of us head back towards work and I try to come up with something to quiet the others down so they don’t ask about what happened. I sigh and walk in silence, resolving to just say it was a false alarm or something. 


	3. Reaper Spell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So what do we do? We’re only gonna be able to keep this from Rose for so long and she’s gonna be upset when she finds out one way or the other, more so if she also finds out we’ve been hiding it from her.” Geoff furrowed his brows and looked from me to Lindsay, almost begging for someone to have a reasonable answer with his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow...been a real long time since I updated this. I promise I haven't abandoned it and I haven't forgotten the AH/RT Fandom. I'm still here and I still love you guys. And no I didn't drop off the face of the planet I've just been busy and this somehow fell out of my update schedule.

I climb into the car with Gavin and try to avoid looking at him. I’m not sure I want to tell him what’s going on but leaving him out of things has never really worked before. I drive back to our apartment in silence and when we get inside Gavin speaks up. 

 

“Ok, what is going on? You’re never this quiet after work, boi.” He looks at me, worried and confused. 

 

“Gav...it’s...I don’t know that I want to get you involved just yet. We don’t totally know what’s going on.” I shake my head. 

 

“Is it about that thing with Miles earlier? Was it actually…?” I sigh and hang my head, so much for not wanting to get him involved. I nod reluctantly and watch the look on his face as he processes what that means. “So he’s really alive then?” 

 

“Sort of, we don’t know what’s going on, even he doesn’t. We want to figure it out before we tell anyone. Especially Rose. Ok?” I look at him and he slumps his shoulders. 

 

“I mean...I get it but I think Rose would want to know.” Gavin looked at me for a minute but nodded. “After everything that’s happened though I guess figuring it out first would be a good idea. I won’t tell her.” 

 

I kiss his cheek and he leans into me so I hug him tight. “Lindsay is gonna have a look at him and see if she can figure it out.” 

 

“Where is he staying?” Gavin looks at me uncertainly. 

 

“Ryan is taking him to his place. I would have brought him here but Rose is here a lot.” 

 

“Yeah, guess that makes sense.” Gavin nodded and leaned back into my shoulder. “Should we go over and see how it’s going with Lindsay and them then?” 

 

“Do you want to?” I look at him and he nods. “Ok, I’m gonna check on the idiot cats and then we can go.” Gavin nods and heads out to sit in the car as I check the cats’ food bowls. Nightshade comes out to say hello but runs back to her spot when Lloyd makes an appearance. I shake my head and give them more food before I head out to meet Gavin. 

 

~~~~~   
  


When we get to Ryan’s house he, Geoff, and Meg are all huddled just inside the front door, deep in discussion about something. They stop and look at Gavin for a minute till I nod. 

 

“How’s it going? Lindsay got anything?” I ask them and join into their little huddle with Gavin close beside me. 

 

“She’s been muttering about Reapers for about a twenty minutes and still looking.” Ryan looked understandably distressed. 

 

“I still don’t understand what the hell a Reaper is.” Geoff scrunched up his nose at it. I sighed and looked at Ryan, who shrugged indifferently. 

 

“Well it’s a type of Demon, usually deals with death and dead things. They can be good or bad just like anything else but they have their own kind of magic and typically Witches will bind their magic, when they find a Reaper, till they die so they can’t use it.” Ryan says and Geoff’s eyes damn near bug out of his head. 

 

“Why….?” 

 

“Because when they die they can help souls reach the afterlife and take souls and whatever...but while they are alive that means they can kill or...in some cases...raise the dead, sort of.” I sigh and hear a little noise from Gavin. 

 

“And you think that’s what’s gone on with Ray?” He asked and looked mildly distressed at the idea. 

 

“Not sure but it could be, it would explain a few things about him.” Ryan shrugged and looked back in the direction of the living room, presumably where Lindsay is with Ray. There wasn’t much else to said until we heard from Lindsay what was going on. When she poked her head into the hallway we all filed into the living room. Ray was sitting on the couch, his gaze cast down to the floor. Ryan and Lindsay started mumbling together until I looked over at them and glared. They could damn well share with the class, none of this hush hush nonsense. 

 

“I’m not actually sure what is going on, whoever is doing this is covering their tracks and blocking me from seeing who did it or what they did.” Lindsay shrugged. “However, even just looking at Ray and talking to him my best possible guess is that it  _ is _ a Reaper Spell...which worries me...a lot.” 

 

“So what do we do? We’re only gonna be able to keep this from Rose for so long and she’s gonna be upset when she finds out one way or the other, more so if she also finds out we’ve been hiding it from her.” Geoff furrowed his brows and looked from me to Lindsay, almost begging for someone to have a reasonable answer with his eyes. 

 

“We can’t tell her just yet, not until I can figure it out for sure.” Lindsay threw her hands up and I nodded in agreement. 

 

“The thing with the Reaper Spell is it’s not permanent. I say they  _ sort of _ raise the dead because technically if that’s what it is then Ray is still dead...just reanimated...and it won’t last.” I give Geoff a glare that he seems to understand. We can’t give Ray back to Rose if she’s just going to lose him again. 

 

“So we figure this out...how?” Gavin piped up and looked at Ryan and Lindsay. 

 

“Well, first I need to get through the block. But we can also just keep an eye on him for a while. If it’s a Reaper Spell he’ll start to show signs and we’ll know.” 

 

“And then we handle it accordingly. We also need to figure out who did this.” Ryan nodded and looked at me. 

 

“Ok, we’ll start working on that then. Maybe dig around in my grimoire for a tracking spell or something.” I offer and they nod in acceptance of the idea. Now we have a lot of work ahead of us but we at least have a direction. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm always online somewhere if you wanna chat...  
> you can find me @ thePetetoherPat on Twitter and thepetetoherpatrick.tumblr.com ^-^
> 
> hit me up whenever xoxo


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